Honey Or Nectar Obtained From Blossoms

Honey was obtained in former times from the blossoms of the harakeke or korari (Phormium), rata (Metrosideros robusta), pohutukawa (M. tomentosa) and rewarewa (Knightia excelsa). Honey gathering was a very tedious task, and one that was often performed by young folk. As to what proportion of the honey found its way into the vessels provided, we have, at this late day, no means page 100of ascertaining. In the Matatua district the term wai kaihua is used to denote the honey obtained from the blossoms of the rata. The kaka parrot is very fond of this nectar, and in former times used to flock in great numbers to the rata trees about January. Old natives yet speak in mournful numbers of the days of the rarangitahi, when several species of birds assembled in countless thousands at the Stands of hill-growing rata. The honey found in the blossoms of the Phormium, or flax, is known as wai korari, wai harakeke and ngongo korari (ngongo, to suck, suck out). Williams gives waihonga as a name for a sweet juice contained in flowers of aka.

To obtain the honey from these different blossoms the flowers had to be plucked and then tapped lightly on the inner parts of a small gourd vessel, or on the rim thereof. An enthusiastic writer in the New Zealand Journal of 25 August, 1849, teils us that the honey of the flax blossoms "lies in the cup of the flower in somewhat considerable quantity, and surpasses in deliciousness of flavour the finest honey collected by bees from a variety of flowers." In the South Island flax-honey, wai korari, was mixed with para ti, the sago obtained from the root and stem of the so-called cabbage-tree (Cordyline australis) and the sweetened meal was much appreciated.

R. McDonald, in Te Hekenga, explains a curious belief connected with this 'flax-honey' as it is often termed; he writes as follows: "Wai korari is a sweet, syrupy fluid which fills the large reddish-brown flowers of the flax stalks, and was sucked out of the flower by the Maoris and also gathered in calabashes and brought home to the pa for more leisurely use. A curious thing about the flower of the flax is that the State of the tide can be told from them with considerable exactitude. I will not guarantee, that this holds good every where, but on the coastal country I can vouch for the correctness of the Statement from personal observation. At low tide the flower is empty, and, as the tide comes in, so the wai korari gradually rises in the flower, until at high tide it is full to the brim, and at spring-tide actually flows over in a steady drip. As the tide goes out the wai korari recedes until the flower is dry again, and so on twice a day while the flowers are in full bloom."